Saturday, September 24, 2011

Two-Fiddy!

I was out running errands last Saturday afternoon while my ten year old was attending a friend's birthday party. I stopped by the local mom and pop guitar shop for a chance to experiment with some American Fenders from the top shelf.

The Teles were good; the Strats were so-so. Plucked them through a used solid state Princeton 112 plus and got some good tone from it.

Moving down to the used rack, I looked up and saw a Hamer logo. Looking down, I saw a Strat body. Closing my eyes, I said a little prayer, and looked up at the logo on the headstock again. Hamer USA.

Amen!

It has been loved to death- but I'm going to love it more. It's precisely what I've been hoping to find: a worn, loved, don't-have-to-worry-about-dinging-it-cause-it-ain't-gonna-get-much-prettier Hamer Daytona to play and play and play. That and it was the nicest Strat in the joint.

Sperzel-locking tuners. String it through the eye, clamp it down, cut the string, tune to pitch.
Yeah, this is the sign of a hand-made American guitar at its best.

It looks better in these pictures than in does in real life, but that's the beauty of it.

You can't get a neck like this without putting in hours and hours of love.